Roughly 100 refugees and migrants arrive at the Serbian side of the truly fortress-like border, where strict Hungarian controls for asylum seekers means that they either end up stranded in makeshift camps of red tents, or cross the border illegally with the help of dangerous smuggling networks.
In a show of force, Hungarian authorities returned over 1,000 people to Serbia over the course of a single week. Claiming that they did not have "valid documentation." Hungarian authorities reportedly plan to send at least 17,000 of the asylum seekers, who reached the country via Serbia, back there.
The plan seems to be to send them back in small groups, as Serbia's B92 TV station reported that on Tuesday about 190 migrants crossed back into Serbia through "improvised passage in the Hungarian border wall," not an official border crossing or legal channel.
The wall itself resembles that of a maximum security prison. Last summer, Hungarian authorities deployed well over 6,000 additional police on the border with Serbia in order to stop the undocumented refugees from entering. In addition to this additional police presence, Hungary is also using helicopters, armored vehicles, and dog handlers (whose canines tend to be fed minimal amounts, a tactic that makes them highly vicious).
Then-PM (Now-President) Aleksander Vučić announced that Serbia would not take the same course of action as neighbouring Hungary: "Serbia will not imitate Hungary and will not stage a 'show' on its borders."
Witnessing the theatrical armaments at the border firsthand, has given me the courage to say, with no reservation and with politics aside, that this should be unacceptable. A child as young as 9 sits on the Serbian side of the border, weeping in his mothers arms as a volunteer doctor from the Serbian city of Niš treats the bloodied dog bite on his small arm. Why? They got too close to Hungary.
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| A poster reading 'Freedom' is held up on the Serbian side, so that it is visible to Hungarian officers. |
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